Thursday, January 26, 2017

I hate Windows 10


Seems to me the last time I even opened CHMusings was about six months ago. That has to be close to the time when my computer installed a Microsoft Update to Windows 10. 

I was pretty satisfied with the new operating system. I was using the Windows 7 version. I really liked that, but fell for the hype about upgrading to the free version of the free operating system for a limited time, blah, blah, blah. Then around Aug. 16 when Microsoft released its dreaded Anniversary edition, it all changed.

I haven't been happy with my computer since then. It seems that every time I open a program I haven't used in awhile, something goes awry. 

Early on, I found new problems every day. Many of them have been fixed, thanks to the computer pioneers who have availed themselves to us poor inexperienced users. There are so many fixes for the multitude of problems that Windows 10 has unearthed that I now wish I had resisted using it.  

Had I known I could, I would have uninstalled it pronto. However, it wasn't until about a month in that I realized that was even possible. Then I learned that Microsoft limited rollbacks to only 10 days, I believe. It was too late for me; I was stuck with it.

Remember my obsession with Crossy Road, a game available in the Microsoft Store. I wrote about how much I loved this game in a previous post. Well, I did love it. Microsoft killed it.

I used my event viewer in Windows to try to troubleshoot the problem. I used the built in troubleshooters; I left messages in the Windows forum, that were never adequately answered. I searched for a solution to the multiple problems loading and ultimately playing the game. I read about solutions, one-by-one, trying them in an effort to get the game to work. I took chances with repairs I really didn't understand, like editing the registry and altering code that didn't make sense to me. All the while I expected my computer to just become a giant paper weight. I had the important files backed up, so I felt almost safe.

Windows continued to update their system. I kept hoping that one of them would make the game work, but to this day, it will load, but it doesn't play correctly. 

Funny though, I can play it on my laptop which I bought with Windows 10 installed on it. Everything works fine on that system. It is just my desktop where nothing works correctly, you know, the one that I've used for years for everything from writing to household finances to listening to my favorite music. 

I've also found that the sound no longer works in Quicken, the software I use to track our household finances and pay my bills online. After following advice and trying everything I could, I broke down and bought the latest version of the software. It still doesn't have sound. Truthfully, I like my old version of that better too. 

I've used Quicken for years. I was always accustomed to hearing that little cash register sound every time I hit the enter key. Now, I am now faced with black hole silence. 

My camera won't upload photos through the USB cord, even though I bought a new one. That doesn't work either. I now have to physically remove the card and insert it into a card reader that works sometimes. Who knows how long that will last? 

The other day I opened Google Earth. Oops, it won't load. I tried updating the software and using the compatibility setting, but to no avail. I no longer have Google Earth. I wonder what program is next.

I'm so frustrated with Windows 10 that I'm thinking of wiping the hard drive and installing a clean copy of Windows 7. I just know I will lose data though, so that is a really last resort. One day I worked up the courage. I was going to go there. First, I thought I'd double check my backup. It was on a thumb drive. Windows said it couldn't read it. So, once again, I'm stuck. 

I'm thinking of trying to manually install whatever I can on my laptop and going with the paper weight idea. In the meantime, I'm not happy!

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